


Reciprocal (Reprise)

by mylittlecthulhu (marineko)



Series: Mathematics of Love [5]
Category: Arashi (Band), Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: AU, Ficlet, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-14
Updated: 2011-02-14
Packaged: 2017-10-22 14:51:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/239236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marineko/pseuds/mylittlecthulhu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sho forgets how high school gets on Valentines.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reciprocal (Reprise)

Sho forgets how high school gets on Valentines. It’s like as soon as he steps in, he is overcome by the sight and smells of Chocolate, the murmurings of the young girls, the boisterous excitement of the boys who are still trying to appear nonchalant, even though they’re hoping and expecting. Even the ones who claim not to care are noisy, complaining over the stupidity of Valentines, the pointlessness of it all.

He’d been one of those kids, once.

Nervously he walks up to the labs on the second floor. It’s Monday, so he’d be seeing Aiba at lunch, probably, but he couldn’t wait, and he can’t really talk to Aiba when Nino and Jun are there, anyway. 

When he reaches the lab, he sees that class isn’t over yet, so he waits outside. It doesn’t take long before Aiba dismisses his class, and soon the students are rushing out. It still takes time before the last of them is gone. Sho steps in, and pauses. A small pile of prettily wrapped packages sits atop Aiba’s desk. He supposes that he shouldn’t be surprised that Aiba is one of those who always gets chocolates on Valentines. 

“Hey,” he says, as casually as he could manage.

Aiba looks up distractedly. “Hey,” he says back. “What are you doing here, Sho-chan?”

He likes the way Aiba calls him ‘Sho-chan’, even though they’re not really that close to each other. But then again, he likes a lot of things about Aiba. which is why he’s there, but suddenly he finds himself unable to say it.

“Um,” he says. Good, he thinks. Now perhaps if he could say something that’s actually a word. “Lunch.” That’s better. Maybe a sentence, next. “I’ll see you then, right?”

Aiba pauses, turns to him, and blinks. He looks confused, but soon it’s replaced by amusement. “I suppose.”

Okay, Sho thinks. He should just salvage whatever pride he has left and leave now, before he makes a bigger fool of himself. “It’s Valentines,” he says, lamely.

Aiba’s attention turns to the chocolates on his desk. “So it is.”

“You’ve got a lot of chocolates.”

“You should see the ones from my last class,” Aiba says. “It’s silly, really, this Valentines thing. But it’s cute.” He tilts his head consideringly. “Is there any reason you’re here? Other than wanting to check if we’ll see each other at lunch, which is what we always do?”

 _Aiba thinks Valentines is silly?_  The hand behind his coat pocket, that’s clutching a small, clumsily wrapped package, flounders. 

“It’s not that I came here just for that,” Sho protests. It is the truth, kind of. “I had to talk to Kishimoto-sensei.” Not really the truth at all.

“Uh huh.” Aiba picks up his bag, and a stack of papers. “Since you’re here, maybe you could help me carry the chocolates? Just to the office. You’re going there anyway, right, to see Kishimoto-sensei?”

Sho helps him, and hopes that Kishimoto-sensei isn’t in the office. She isn’t. Breathing a sigh of relief, he places Aiba’s chocolates on the office desk. Sure enough, there is a larger pile waiting there. “See?” Aiba says. “Silly, isn’t it. There’s no way I’ll be able to eat my way through these.”

Sho has never received chocolates - not any that weren’t given out of duty, anyway, and chocolates from his mom doesn’t count - so he doesn’t know what to say. He shrugs. He says something about seeing Aiba at lunch, and backs away.

“Wait,” Aiba stops him, as if suddenly thinking of something. Aiba thinks of Sho spending a lot of time with Jun, and of Sho’s change in appearance. Aiba thinks of the way Sho looked at him expectantly last Monday, as if waiting for Aiba to comment on the change. Aiba thinks of the way Sho’s cheeks warmed over, tinged pink, when Aiba told him that Valentines was silly. 

It _is_ silly. It’s silly that there’s a special day for girls to confess to the boys they like, when sometimes the boys were only thinking of other boys. “Hand it over,” Aiba tells Sho.

“Um. What?”

Aiba thinks he understands, now. “There should be one more. Hand it over.”

“But I didn’t take anything -” Sho pauses, as it hits him that Aiba knows. His hand dips into his pocket, and takes it out, puts it on top of the already large pile. It looks clumsy atop the pile - distinguished from the rest by the fact that it’s neither shiny nor pretty nor neat. But Aiba reaches out and takes it, ignoring all the rest.

If Aiba’s smile could be bottled up and contained, Sho thinks, it would generate enough to light up the entire school building. 

“Thank you,” Aiba tells him. “For the first time, I’m receiving chocolate from someone who matters.” He lets time pass for the words to sink in, and when Sho starts to smile back, he asks, “would you like to go out with me, for lunch?”


End file.
